Veering off topic

Many studies have focused on the dangers of talking or texting while driving, but there are reports that using a cell phone while going at slower speeds can also be hazardous.

American physical therapy researchers studying the impact of either texting or talking on a cell phone while walking found that multitasking influenced both the speed and direction of the speaker.

“We were surprised to find that talking and texting on a cell phone were so disruptive to one’s gait and memory recall,” said Stony Brook University professor Eric Lamberg, coauthor of the study published Jan. 5 in the journal Gait & Posture, in a statement.

Walking toward target

More than 30 volunteers took part in the study, which involved walking toward a target placed a short distance away several times without actually being able to see it. During the first trial, the volunteers did not use their cell phones and wore hoods as they tried to walk to where they thought the target was located.

In the second trial, the hooded volunteers held a phone conversation that required them to think about their answers while walking to the target. The participants were still hooded in the final trial, but in such a way that they could see their phones to type in answers to similarly challenging questions while walking toward the target.

“Although the act of texting may be common,” the team noted in their report, “it is unlikely to be as well-practiced as walking or talking.” The researchers found that the people who texted on the cell phones while walking slowed down their pace to two-thirds of their normal speed and angled farther off course toward their target-end location in comparison to the people who talked on the phone while walking, and those who focused solely on walking toward the same target.

Analog wall clock

To get an idea of what the researchers saw during their trials, picture an analog wall clock with the participants standing at the center point and ordered to walk in a straight line toward the number 12. The people who texted while walking tended to aim for either the number 11 or the number 1 and walk farther past these points, while the people who were talking on their cell phones found themselves walking toward an undefined point between either 11 and 12 or between 12 and 1.

The researchers noted they plan to incorporate multitasking with cell phones in their physical therapy sessions not only to challenge patients but also to help get them used to these real-world scenarios. However, the hazards they found of using mobile phones while in motion in these trials only echo results from other studies published in the past year.

Pedestrian behavior

An April article from the Journal of Safety Research, for example, noted how cell phone use influenced pedestrian behavior while crossing streets under typical traffic conditions. The trials were all done in a simulated environment, but the researchers looked at whether or not the cell phone conversations—texting was not checked in these tests—affected the participants’ ability to judge when it was safe to cross the street, if they missed a good chance to cross, or if they would have been hit by a car because they were distracted.

The results suggest that in order to reduce the risk of accidents when using cell phones, avoid distractions caused by multitasking with mobile devices and stay put till the phone call is ended or the text message is sent.

“When distracted,” the researchers concluded, “participants left significantly less time to spare, missed more opportunities to cross, and were hit or almost hit significantly more times than when not distracted.”

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